Historically, there has been a pattern of intolerance towards individuals that are different based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender etc.
Literature illustrating these experiences can make these issues more relevant and personal to students.
Discussion and the study of intolerance are beneficial to students in understanding political/racial/ethnic/religious issues around the world.
Research is a skill that should be learned and can/should be used for higher learning.
Producing/composing/writing in different genres can provide students experience in writing that will be applicable to their future (college or not).
Essential Questions:
How do historical events influence the production of texts?
How do events in history connect or repeat themselves?
How do people and/or nations learn from their mistakes and struggles?
Do we have a responsibility to ourselves, to others, to nations to be tolerant? Why or Why not?
How does power inform tolerance/intolerance?
How do individual’s differences inform relationships?
How do genre and purpose connect?
How do genre and audience connect?
Quotations: ·“This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century -- solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others.”—Elie Wiesel ·“Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life”—Elie Wiesel ·“The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different traditions.”—Abraham Joshua Heschel ·“The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.”—Ralph W. Sockman ·“The highest result of education is tolerance.”—Helen Keller ·“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.·“I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.”—Thomas Jefferson Themes:
Linking Texts:
Film:
- Long Walk Home directed by Richard Pearce
Documentary:- Oprah and Elie Wiesel at Auschwitz
- “Cyberbullying: You Can’t Take it Back”
http://www.netsmartz.org/stories/canttake.htmTelevision
- Band of Brothers Season 1, Episode 9: “Why We Fight” written by John Orloff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flt3B3QWmOo- Mad Men (Clips from “Ladies Room,” “The Hobo Code,” “The Inheritance”
Speech:- “I Have a Dream Speech” Martin Luther King
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htmNon-fiction:
- “U.S. Calls Killings In Sudan Genocide”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8364-2004Sep9.html- “Two Little Boys”
http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/two-little-boys/?apage=6Big Ideas:
Essential Questions:
Quotations:
· “This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century -- solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others.”—Elie Wiesel
· “Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life”—Elie Wiesel
· “The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different traditions.”—Abraham Joshua Heschel
· “The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.”—Ralph W. Sockman
· “The highest result of education is tolerance.”—Helen Keller
· “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.· “I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.”—Thomas Jefferson
Themes:
- Intolerance/tolerance
- Power struggles
- Genocide
- Diversity
- Discrimination
- Prejudice
- Judgment
- Activism
Literary Elements & Devices:Cultural:
Genre Study: